System and method for voice user interface navigation

ABSTRACT

A Voice User Interface (VUI) or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system utilizes three levels of navigation (e.g. Main Menu, Services, and Helper Commands) in presenting information units arranged in sets. The units are “spoken” by a system in a group to a human user and the group of information at each level is preceded by a tone that is unique to the level. When navigating the levels, the tones of the levels are in a musical progression, e.g. the three-note blues progression I, IV, V, for preceding the groups of information, respectively. The musical progression returns to the tonic of the musical key when the navigation returns to the level one of the first group of information.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a human user interface with a machine,process or article and more particularly to a Voice User Interface (VUI)or an Interactive Voice Response (IVR).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A human user interface with a machine, process or article may beconducted using various channels or lines, such as audio, visual, touchor a combination of these. The present invention relates to an interfacethat includes at least audio communication via an audio line or channelfrom the machine, process or article to a human user.

As an example, a Voice User Interface (VUI) or an Interactive VoiceResponse (IVR) are well-known and fast-growth areas of technology, suchthat numerous companies are attempting to solve the same problems.

Non-verbal audio (sound effects and music) are used to aid VUInavigation. Sound Effects/Music can be used as an “Icon” to identify aService, for example, and for “Latency Sounds” (Sound Effect/Music whichis played while the system fetches information content). In a VUI, thehuman user issues a voice command for information. Such a command is tocause the performance of a function by the execution of a step. Thereceiver of the command then performs the function by executing the stepand transmits the resulting information by voice.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) uses a touchtone telephone tocommunicate with a remote compute, which uses a computerized voice toread back information.

Therefore, there is a need for an improved voice interface between asystem and a human.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

These and other needs are addressed by the present invention.

The interface of the present invention provides information to a userwith a signal of tonality unique to the group, or more particularly thelevel, of that information, whereby the user is more aware ofnavigation, or more particularly browsing, within the system forimproved user friendliness.

User friendliness, for electronic equipment and systems, is the qualityof being easy for people (humans) to operate and is the ease with whicha machine, especially a computer system, can be operated by people.

Due to the lack of any visual elements relevant to navigation in VUIs(for example, a Voice Portal) and IVRs, knowing where the user is in aVUI or IVR dialog with a system is a challenging problem. That is, thereis a problem of VUI users (e.g. Voice Portal callers) and IVR users notknowing where they are in VUI or IVR navigation through a system thathas groups, e.g. levels of information, the levels being the result of aclassification or other organization of the information being sought bythe users. The present invention recognizes the problem of the user notknowing where they are in navigating a system that provides informationaudibly, and analyzes the problem to determine that this is caused bythe lack of any visual, or more broadly sensory elements, relevant tonavigation.

As a solution to the problem of knowing where the user is in a dialog(navigation, including browsing), the present invention uses musictonality to provide intuitive audio cues in the system suppliedinformation, which results in an improved users' ability to communicateover the interface. This solution works for any private, personal,government or commercial agency and with any machine or system havingvoice response providing information to a human user. The commandsprovided by the user may be from a keyboard, from a number pad, from atouchtone telephone, by voice or the like, which is not critical to theinvention. The invention is most useful and intuitive when used in ahuman user/non-human dialog, most specifically of a voice-driven accessin VUIs, for example, a Voice Portal, of a touchtone telephone drivenaccess in IVRs.

The present invention is described in the preferred embodiment and bestmode of a Voice Portal, wherein there are specific unique problems andcauses, as analyzed above and which analysis is a part of the presentinvention.

However, the invention more broadly extends to any user commanding/voice(human voice or a facsimile thereof) responding interface (user commandand system voice response interface), for example: web page, IVR, VUI(e.g. voice portal), home appliances, industrial systems, services forthe blind, and a robot. The user in the present invention is directly orindirectly a human that can benefit from the unique tonalities.

Still other aspects, features, and advantages of the present inventionare readily apparent from the following detailed description, simply byillustrating a number of particular embodiments and implementations,including the best mode contemplated for carrying out the presentinvention. The present invention is also capable of other and differentembodiments, and its several details can be modified in various obviousrespects, all without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. Accordingly, the drawing and description are to be regardedas illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and not by wayof limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings and in whichlike reference numerals refer to similar elements and in which:

FIG. 1 describes one navigation example, as a flow chart, in a VoicePortal navigation, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of the processing of an audio communication for auser audio interface according to an embodiment of the presentinvention, broadly, and used in the preferred embodiment of which FIG.1, as an example;

FIG. 3 is a more detailed presentation of the transmit level threeinformation step of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic of apparatus to implement an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic of apparatus of another embodiment to implementthe present invention; and

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of the processing of an audio communication for auser audio interface of FIG. 5.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

A system, method and software for a VUI are described. In the followingdescription, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific detailsare set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of thepresent invention. It is apparent, however, to one skilled in the artthat the present invention may be practiced without these specificdetails or with an equivalent arrangement. In other instances,well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form inorder to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present invention.

The preferred embodiment VUI utilizes three levels of navigation,respectively having three groups of information (i.e. Main Menu,Services, and Helper Commands). The navigation is intuitive because itis based on audio cues correspondingly using the three first notes of achord progression preferably the I, IV, V chords of a key, which chordsare predominately used in blues or old time musical chord progressions).Each level of computer communication starts with the tonic note of thekey, which note is unique to that level and which key is common to alllevels, prior to the computer system voicing the syllables or words onthe information provided at that level. Thus, when returning to the mainor first level, the progression always returns to the tonic of the key.This invention improves upon the known voice portals and multi-deviceaccess frameworks, providing a mechanism for new and improved voiceinterfaces to systems and services.

In repeater systems, tone-burst entry is a known technique whereby ashort tone signal is used at the start of a transmission to trigger aparticular repeater so that all repeaters in the system will not go intooperation simultaneously. Such a system uses a tone-burst generator,having an oscillator and associated circuitry for producing a tone burstof a tone unique to the particular repeater. This known system does useunique tones for identification, as does a tone dialing telephonesystem, but the known systems are used to distinguish commands to amachine, not as in the present invention to distinguish levels ofprovided information in a navigated system; also these known systemstransmit to a non-human user, i.e. a machine, not as in the presentinvention to a human.

Tonality refers to the tone (dominant pitch or frequency) and timbre(relative harmonic content) of a sound other than noise. Timbre is afunction of the instrument used to make or generate the tone. Eventhough a violin, horn, piano, and the voices of two different people maygenerate a “middle C”, that is the exact same tone, for example, theyare very distinguishable due to their unique timbres. Therefore timbreand tone may each be used to assist in navigation. The preferredembodiment relates to tone, used alone or in combination with otheraids, such as timbre.

The tonality is preferably that used in the culture where the inventionis to be practiced. For example, western music tonality is well knownthroughout the western culture and therefore preferably would be usedwhere the western culture is well known. Western music (and morespecifically blues music that evolved from the call/response nature ofthe field holler) uses this concept and it is widely accepted/understoodby all people of western cultures. This well-known western musicconvention of tonality always returns to the base of a key or “tonic”.The tonic is the first and most important note of a major or minorscale, to which all other notes in the scale bear a subordinaterelationship. The key is named after the tonic, e.g. the key of D of thepresent example is named after its first note and contains the notes ofD, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D (one octave higher). The tonic is representedby the Roman numeral I. Tonality denotes the presence of a central keyin a musical composition. If the music moves to a different key(modulation), it is expected to return to the original key (called thetonic). Tonality gives the ear a “center”, providing a context in whichmelody and harmony have “meaning.” It is this analysis, which is part ofthe present invention, that explains why the preferred embodiment (bestmode) is so successful in improving navigation within a system having aVUI.

The known “NBC” (National Broadcasting Company) announcement uses notesof a chord within a key to pleasantly present the three letters, butdoes not use tonality to provide any practical information and hasnothing to do with navigation or the identification of groups or levelsof information being provided.

FIG. 4 is in totality the VUI or information system of the presentinvention according to the embodiment with a voice synthesizer, andcomprises a schematic showing connection of per se currently standard,well known components (or their equivalents as determined by theguidance of their function within the inventor's problem, cause andsolution analysis) operable in an information environment. Preferably,the information environment is a computer system wherein a generalpurpose computer is programmed according to FIGS. 1 to 3.

FIG. 1 describes one example of a dialog with and navigation of a‘WorldCom Center’ Voice Portal equipped with the present invention.There are three levels of navigation or organizational levels ofinformation, as follows:

Step 100, FIG. 1: Level 1, “WorldCom Center”: This is the “Main Menu” orstart of the VUI. Users may invoke services (‘Corporate Dialer’,‘Conference Call Scheduler’, ‘News’, ‘Stock’, etc.) or Helper Commands(‘Log In’, ‘Help’, etc.) from here, and they may return to this startingpoint at any time (by saying ‘WorldCom Center’). This level of the VUIis in the base musical key of “D” starting with the tonic “D”. ‘WorldComCenter’, for example, is one set of information units, involving threewords as units or four syllables as units. The individual units arespoken by the speech synthesizer 413 of FIG. 4 or obtained from arecording, not shown, within the VUI. The thus spoken information unitsof the set “WorldCom Center” follow the I tone D, which tone is thetonic in the key of D.

Step 101, FIG. 1: After hearing the voice transmission of sets of theinformation in group one, in the example at Level one, the human userspeaks a user select command, from among those that were voice presentedat step 100. The system apparatus 401, 405 of FIG. 4 receives the userselect command, recognizes the command and executes the command. Forexample, with the user command of “Corporate Directory” the group twoinformation of level two is provided to the I/O 410 of the VUI 405 fromthe computer system 401 of FIG. 4.

Step 102, FIG. 1: Level 2, “Services”: This level is where usersinteract with a service (‘Corporate Directory’ in the example). Fromhere, users may invoke Service commands (e.g. “Sam Adams . . . HelperCommands) or return to the “Main Menu” (by speaking the command‘WorldCom Center’). This level two of the VUI is in the base musical keyof “D”. ‘Corporate Directory’, for example, is one set of informationunits, involving two words as units or seven syllables as units. Theindividual units are spoken by the speech synthesizer 413 of FIG. 4 orobtained from a recording, not shown, within the VUI. Thus spokeninformation units of the set “Corporate Directory” follow the IV tone G,which tone is the fourth tone in the key of D.

Step 103, FIG. 1: After hearing the voice transmission of sets of theinformation in group two at Level two, the human user speaks a userselect command, from among those commands that were machine voicepresented by way of example in operation 102. The system apparatus401,405 of FIG. 4 receives the user select command, recognizes thecommand and executes the command. For example, with the user command of“Helper Commands”, the group three information of level three isprovided to the I/O 410 of the VUI 405 from the computer system of FIG.4.

Step 104, FIG. 1: Level 3, “Helper Commands . . . WorldCom Center”: Thislevel is where users interact with the Helper Commands listed in moredetail in FIG. 3, in the example. Helper Commands may be invoked fromany level. From here, users may invoke any one of the Helper Commands orreturn to the “Main Menu” (by speaking the command ‘WorldCom Center’).This level three of the VUI is in the base musical key of “D” or tonicof “A”. “Log In”, for example, is one set of information units,involving one word as a unit or two syllables as units. The individualunits are spoken by the speech synthesizer of FIG. 4 or obtained from arecording, not shown, within the VUI 405. The thus spoken informationunits of the set “Log In” follow the V tone “A”, which tone is the fifthtone in the key of D”. The user is returned to the level from which theHelper Command was invoked, or the user may return to the “Main Menu”(‘WorldCom Center’).

While the preferred embodiment is described with respect to the key of“D”, other musical progressions of the tones of the another key, e.g. of“A”, are contemplated, for example the first tones of the I, IV, Vcords, namely “A”, “D”, “E”.

Step 105, FIG. 1: After hearing the voice transmissions of sets of theinformation in group three, in the example at Level three, the humanuser speaks a user select command, from among those commands that werevoice presented for operation 102. The system apparatus 401, 405 of FIG.4 receives the user select command, recognizes the command and executesthe command. For example with the user command of “WorldCom Center” thegroup one information of level one is provided to the I/O 410 of the VUI405 from the computer system 401 of FIG. 4.

Step 106, FIG. 1: In the example, with the “WorldCom Center” commandselected by the user, return is to the operation 100 of FIG. 1.

In FIG. 2, the connections and timing of the operation of the componentsare described for transmission of information to the user, as controlledby software in the computer system 401, or by hardware connections or acombination of hardware and software of FIG. 4.

Step 200, FIG. 2: The software, when in the VUI mode of the systemapparatus including 401,405, waits for a user command that requestsinformation, after operation 100 of FIG. 1. A user command is entered bythe user 402 of FIG. 4, by voice through a microphone, by a touch pad,by a touchtone of a telephone, or by a keyboard, e. g., with thetransmitter portion of the receiver/transmitter 403. Thereceiver/transmitter 403 is connected to the input-output port (I/O) 404of the VUI 405 by a transmission line 406. The transmission line 406 hasa bandwidth of sufficient capacity, etc. to be of voice grade, and maycomprise alone or in combination such standard lines as telephone, IR(infra red), satellite, networks, built-in bus, or direct cabling. TheVUI 405 has a bus 407 to connect the various components of the VUI, oneof which is an input-output port (I/O) 404, which is connected to thetransmission line 406 to receive the user command and place it on thebus 407. The voice analyzer and command recognition circuit 409 takesthe user command off of the bus 407, in accordance with operation 101 ofFIG. 1. The user command is analyzed, recognized and if necessary,parsed, so that one or more corresponding computer system commands arethen placed on the bus 407. The voice analyzer circuit, a portion ofvoice analyzer and command recognition circuit 409, evaluates thecharacteristics of human voices, such as the amplitude-vs.-frequencyfunction or the amplitude-vs.-time function, e.g. with a filter forpassing, suppressing, or modifying voice frequencies.

Step 201, FIG. 2: From the bus 407, the computer system command from thevoice analyzer and command recognition circuit 409, is sent by theinput-output port (I/O) 410, to the computer system 401. The computersystem 401 interprets the computer system command, and the VUIapplication software accordingly determines the level or group and theset of the requested information. The set of information is retrievedfrom the storage of the computer system 401 and placed on the bus 407through the I/O 410 and a level indicating signal is also placed on thebus 407 through the I/O 410 (in this example, it indicates level one).

Step 202, FIG. 2: The level indicating signal is removed from the bus407 by a selector 411 that then sets its output to the appropriate toneof the appropriate key, which in the case of level one is the tone “D”of the key of “D”, and initializes the tone oscillator, or tonegenerator 408; therefore: the tone one, or tonic is sent to the audiofrequency signal generator 412 for preceding the units of information.The tone generators 408 may be oscillators for producing simpleaudio-frequency signals for communications.

Step 207, FIG. 2: The audio frequency signal generator 412 provides anaudio frequency carrier signal to the speech synthesizer 413. The speechsynthesizer modulates the carrier signal in accordance with the units ofinformation (e. g. words or syllables) taken from the bus 407 and addstimbre to thereby generate a signal that is an electronic representationof the spoken units of information, which passes from the bus throughthe I/O 408 to be transmitted to the user, for example over thetransmission line 406 to the receiver 403. The audio-frequency (AF)signal generator 412 may be an audio oscillator that is well known anddelivers an output signal in the frequency range 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Someinstruments of this type operate above and below the limits of thecommon audio-frequency spectrum (e.g., 1 Hz to 1 MHz). Theaudio-frequency (AF) signal generator is a part of the voice transmitter411-413.

An example of an equivalent embodiment of the VUI or information systemof the present invention is shown in FIG. 5, and the figure comprises aschematic showing connection of per se currently standard, well knowncomponents (or their equivalents as determined by the guidance of theirfunction within the inventor's problem, cause and solution analysis)operable in an information environment. Preferably, the informationenvironment is a computer system wherein a general purpose computer isprogrammed according to FIGS. 1 and 3. As shown in FIG. 5, the speechsynthesizer, audio frequency signal generator 412 and selector 411 maybe replaced by a digital recording of all of the units of information,which are randomly accessed by the computer system commands from thevoice analyzer and command recognition circuit 409. Further if the usercommand is in a form recognized by the computer system, for example akeyboard entry or entered number by the user, the user command may besent directly to the computer system, and in such cases of theequivalent structure, the VUI is embodied completely in the computersystem that is a general purpose computer programmed with the VUIprogram and having the stored information.

Steps 203 and 204, FIG. 2: These steps correspond to steps 201 and 202,respectively, and are conducted for the second unit of information of aset, according to the control of the selector 411.

Steps 203 and 205, FIG. 2: These steps correspond to steps 201 and 202,respectively, and are conducted for the third unit of information of aset, according to the control of the selector 411.

The voice-frequency carrier transmits the voice or audio-frequency overthe transmission line 406 (line and attendant equipment suitable for thetransmission of speech and certain other information, such as controlsignals, digital data, etc.; the line may be a radio broadcast link, anoptical signal within a wave guide or not, an electric coded signal,infra-red signal and the like commonly used for signal transmission butwhen the user is a human, such a line should at least end with anacoustic transducer, e.g. a speaker.) having a voice-frequency bandwidththat includes the audio-frequency range of human hearing. The voicegrade transmission line 406 is a communications system with a band passcapable of transferring a human voice with reasonable intelligibility,and has a voice-grade channel, which may include a radio telephonetransmitter, a speech amplifier-modulator channel suitable only forvoice frequencies.

The computer system 401 typically includes a bus or other communicationmechanism for communicating information, a processor coupled to the busfor processing information received as commands from a main memory, suchas a random access memory (RAM) or other dynamic storage device, coupledto the bus for storing information and instructions to be executed bythe processor. The main memory can also be used for storing temporaryvariables or other intermediate information during execution ofinstructions by the processor. The computer system typically furtherincludes a read only memory (ROM) or other static storage device coupledto the bus for storing static information and instructions for theprocessor. A storage device, such as a magnetic disk or optical disk,typically is coupled to the bus for storing information andinstructions.

The computer system 401, of FIG. 4, typically includes, coupled via thebus, a display, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), liquid crystaldisplay, active matrix display, or plasma display, for displayinginformation. An input device, such as a keyboard including alphanumericand other keys, typically is coupled to the bus for communicatinginformation and command selections to the processor by the human user,which in the present invention may be used as an alternative to theillustrated voice communication from the human user to the system as awhole. Another type of user input device is cursor control, such as amouse, a trackball, touchtone keypad of a telephone or cursor directionkeys for communicating direction information and command selections tothe processor and optionally for controlling cursor movement on thedisplay. The computer system 401 has a storage dividing and storinginformation retrievable in groups, each group comprising sets ofinformation units that correspond to one of words and syllables.

The information being transmitted to the user in the present inventionmay be sent alone or simultaneously along with other sounds (such asmusic, children playing, wind in trees, ocean waves, chirping birds,etc.). The information to be conveyed, preferably by voice, is generallylouder than the other sounds. The unique tonality may involve uniquevoice prints, i.e. having a graphic representation of the speechfrequencies (timbre, i.e. other than pitch or tone) produced by anindividual and used as a means of identifying that individual andcorrespondingly identifying the level of the information.

The VUI 405 interconnects and provides compatibility between at leastone transmitter of information and at least one user of the information.The interface provides interaction (as only a one way voicecommunication from a machine to the human user according to the broaderaspects of the present invention, or as in the preferred embodiment,mutually as a two way dialog between machine and human user) influenceof one circuit or device on the behavior of another, as in a computerdisplay device with which its operator can supply data to the computerfor choices of information to be provided by the computer system. Suchinterface provides an efficient pathway for information or data, and insuch case the interface is collectively the hardware and software thatallows a computer to interact, e.g. with its human operator/user.

The speech synthesizer 413 is well known per se and translates signals(e.g. binary digital signals) from a machine (such as a computer,control system, servomechanism, command network in which the chain ofcommand is rigorously defined and followed, or robot) into audible,coherent spoken words, phrases or sentences, using an electronic devicethat translates the signals from the machine. The audio-frequency rangeof human hearing is about 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. The range of human speechis from about 60 Hz to 8000 Hz. The frequencies within the audio passband of a typical single-sideband voice transmitter or receiver may havea lower limit of 200 Hz to 300 Hz and an upper limit of about 2500 Hz to3000 Hz. An audio channel is the portion of a complex signal or waveformused to convey audio information exclusively.

The embodiment of the invention, as shown in FIG. 5, is similar to theembodiment of FIG. 4, but without use of the receiver/transmitter 403.The speech synthesizer 513 does not include the audio frequency signalgenerator 412 and selector 411, but has a random access storage of audiofile of groups of sets of units of information as words or syllablesrecorded as an audio file from a real human voice or a synthesized humanvoice preceded by the proper tonality as described with respect to theembodiment of FIG. 4, for example as an mp3 or mp4 file. The computersystem 401, as a variation, could have the speech synthesizer 513. Ineither case, as in FIG. 4, their is a storage dividing and storinginformation retrievable in groups, each group comprising sets ofinformation units that correspond to one of words and syllables, in aform representative of prerecorded voice units of information precededby the previously described tone unique to the group or level in a keythat is common to all of the groups or levels, thereby providing amusical progressions of tones in navigating through the groups orlevels. Such unique preceding tone and units of information are read outof the memory by the execution of the user request commands from thevoice analyzer and command recognition circuit 409 and by initiation ofthe VUI. Execution of the arrangement of instructions contained in mainmemory in accordance with the commands causes the computer system toperform the process steps described herein.

In FIG. 5, The I/O 404 specifically includes a speaker and microphone totransmit the voice communications over the transmission line 406, whichin this case is the environmental air as the medium for the acoustictransmissions. In both FIGS. 4 and 5, all of the herein transmissionlines may be used as one way voice or two way voice interfaces, and theuser may also enter commands from any conventional peripheral inputdirectly or indirectly over a network.

The method of operating the FIG. 5 embodiment and programming the VUIshould be clear from the prior discussions relating to FIGS. 2 and 4, inconjunction with FIG. 6.

In alternative embodiments, hard-wired circuitry may be used in place ofor in combination with software instructions to implement the embodimentof the present invention. Thus, embodiments of the present invention arenot limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry andsoftware. Systems that implement the present invention are not limitedto any particular type of data container or database architecture. Otherarchitectures may use other terminology.

Both the preferred forms of the embodiments of FIGS. 4 and 5 providesuccessive information units as voice units in groups or at levels,which groups or levels are identified to the user by a musicalprogression of tones of a musical key, which tones are unique for eachof the groups, which unique key is used by the human user as anavigation aid to determine the group to which the units belongs. Eachmusical progression of tones is most preferably the I, IV, V musicalprogression in the corresponding musical key; each musical progressionstarts from the tonic tone of the musical key and returns to the tonictone to repeat the musical progression as the user navigates through thelevels and returns to the level one group. Successive tones of eachmusical progression of tones ascend in pitch in one direction of ahierarchy of the information units and descend in pitch in the otherdirection of the hierarchy.

Unless otherwise indicated, the VUI or IVR includes, but notnecessarily, the computer system as a component.

As a further embodiment of the present invention, the computer systemmay include the VUI or IVR, for example, as follows. In a generalpurpose Macintosh computer, such as a G3 or G4 by Apple Computer, theoperating system and system software includes Apple's speech recognitionprogram called Speakable Items, which has a vocabulary that can becustomized and is designed for navigation, not dictation. The computercan be told to always listen or upon an event such as while keys arepressed or when called by a name by a human user; the name World Cornmay be entered by the programmer entering the name in the Name text box.The system software also has Speech control, which is Text-to-Speech,available in English and Spanish spoken in twenty different voices,which enables the computer to read out loud what is on its screen, whichmay be a web page or an Apple Works document. Therefore, for use withthe present invention, an event such as the dial up of a WorldCom webpage or the user using the name WorldCom would start the speechrecognition program Speakable items, which would be used with specialcommands to call up a web page or text document from Apple works andread it in one voice with the tonality unique to the level, throughSpeech control; and then the computer system would bring up other pagesin response to voice commands from the user and read those in successionwith the tonality unique to the level, as an aid to navigation. The userand computer may communicate using the computer's I/Os of the built-invoice pick-up microphone, speaker, telephone modem, fire-wire or USB (orany combination of the above) directly by voice or indirectly over theInternet, a LAN, a peripheral, etc.

CONCLUSION

Accordingly, a VUI, IVR or similar system provides information with asignal of tonality unique to the group or level of that information,whereby the user is more aware of navigation within the system, forimproved user friendliness, particularly with a musical progression oftonality provided when navigating plural levels.

While the present invention has been described in connection with anumber of embodiments and implementations, the present invention is notso limited but covers various obvious modifications and equivalentarrangements, which fall within the purview of the appended claims.

1. A method of communicating information to a human user, comprising:providing information in groups; sending at least one group of theinformation as a voice transmission with a tonality unique to the atleast one group that distinguishes the at least one group from others ofthe groups; preceding successive groups of the information respectivelyby a tone unique to each group, with the tones of the groups being amusical progression of tones of a musical key; starting the musicalprogression with the tonic tone of the musical key; and ascendingfrequency of the tones that are unique to the groups in one direction ofa hierarchy of the groups and descending frequency of the tones that areunique to the groups in the other direction of the hierarchy.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, employed as an interactive voice recognition (IVR),including: receiving and recognizing user tone commands for navigationof the groups of the information.
 3. The method of claim 1, employed asa voice user interface (VUI), including: receiving and recognizing uservoice commands for navigation of the groups of the information.
 4. Aninformation system, comprising: storage having information retrievablein groups, each group corresponding to one of words and syllables; meansfor sending, to a human, each of the groups of the information as avoice transmission preceded by a unique tone of a musical key thatdistinguishes each group from others of the groups; and means forproviding the tones of successive groups as a musical progression in themusical key from the tonic tone of the musical key, wherein successivetones of each musical progression of tones ascend in pitch in onedirection of a hierarchy of the groups and descend in pitch in the otherdirection of the hierarchy.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein: themusical progression of tones is the I, IV, V musical progression in themusical key.
 6. The system of claim 5, further including: means forresponding to and recognizing user voice commands for navigation of thegroups of the information; and wherein said means for responding to andrecognizing together with said means for sending are for a two way voiceuser interface (VUI).
 7. The system of claim 4, further including: meansfor responding to and recognizing user voice commands for navigation ofthe groups of the information; and wherein said means for responding toand recognizing together with said means for sending are for a two-wayuser interface.
 8. An information system, comprising: storage havinginformation retrievable in groups, each group comprising sets ofinformation units that correspond to one of words and syllables; and aninterface for voice transmitting each group preceded by a unique tone,which tones are in a single musical key, so that the tones distinguisheach group from the other groups to a human, whereby the unique tonesprovide a human user navigation aid to identify the group to which theunits belongs, wherein: successive tones form a musical progression ofthe tones that ascends in pitch in one direction of a hierarchy of thegroups and descend in pitch in the other direction of the hierarchy ofthe groups.
 9. The information system of claim 8, further comprising: aninput to receive user commands; and an analyzer and command recognizerconnected to receive user commands input and issue corresponding systemcommands.
 10. The information system of claim 8, further comprising: aVUI input to receive user voice commands; and a voice analyzer andcommand recognizer connected to receive user voice commands from saidVUI input and issue corresponding system commands.
 11. A method forproviding a user interface to navigate through information, comprising:assigning a plurality of tonalities to a respective plurality ofinformation groups for identifying the information groups that arearranged hierarchically; and presenting one of the information groups asa voice transmission with the corresponding tonality to a user, whereinsuccessive ones of the information groups of the information correspondto a musical progression of tones of a musical key, and ascendingfrequency of the tones are associated with the information groups in onedirection of the hierarchy and descending frequency of the tones areassociated with the information groups in another direction of thehierarchy.